Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday announced another share buyback—a stark contrast to its competitors, many of which can barely afford to pay a dividend.

Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers said its board had approved a €550 million ($608.2 million) share-repurchase program, the airline’s eighth, to be carried out through February. The company reported second-quarter profit rose 8%, with net profit rising to €912 million from €843.1 million a year ago.

The Irish budget carrier, which completed a €886 million share buyback in June, will have returned more than €1 billion ($1.1 billion) to investors this year, Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said. That brings the total to around €4.8 billion since 2008, including through special dividends, he said.

“We will continue to return surplus funds to shareholders subject to market conditions as long as we remain profitable, cash-generative, and can fund our capex and other operational requirements,” Mr. Sorahan said.

The company has “returned cash to shareholders either through a buyback or a special dividend in each of the last eight years,” said Raman Singla, a corporate analyst for Fitch Ratings in London.

Ryanair doesn’t have a regular dividend policy, Mr. Singla said. “We anticipate that Ryanair will be able to fund shareholder distributions with only modest increases in debt and will slow or eliminate distributions in the event of an economic downturn or disruption to the airline industry,” he said.

Ryanair’s competitors, however, struggle to pay even a dividend.

Air France-KLM SA, the French-Dutch carrier, hasn’t issued a dividend for the past three financial years. “Over the last three financial years, considering the focus given to the reduction of net debt, Air France-KLM made no dividend distributions,” a statement on the airline’s website reads. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lufthansa AG, Germany’s legacy carrier, in early 2015 scrapped its dividend for 2014, the second time in three years. For 2016, the company is capable of paying a dividend, a spokesman said.

British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group SA said late October it would pay an interim dividend of €0.11 a share, a 10% increase over the prior-year period. “As in 2015, we expect the interim dividend to be around half the full-year dividend,” IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in October. The company said it wouldn’t provide more information about its dividend.

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